Catalonia will need 80,000 new nursing home places by 2035.

BarcelonaIn the next decade the number of people over 60 and 65 years old in Catalonia will almost double with the arrival of the children of the generation of baby boomThis situation will further complicate the current shortage of places in nursing homes, with waiting lists of more than two years in many centers, and there are even delays in the case of private centers. In a new report on the socioeconomic impact of care for dependent persons, prepared for another year by the Union of Entities with the support of the Catalan Association of Assistance Resources (ACRA), the employers' association of large nursing homes, figures out the challenge of aging: by 2035, 80,000 new places will need to be created, and another 26,000 professionals hired, to be able to provide reliable care to this elderly population.

According to the latest data from the Department of Social Rights, 18,000 people are on the waiting list for a public nursing home place, and in 40% of cases the delay is between two and three years. This delay is also compounded by the time it takes to carry out assessments and determine the degree of dependency and the service or benefit to which the person is entitled. Along the way, 25 people die every day without having received help. For the time being, for this term, Salvador Illa's government has committed to creating 6,000 new places.

Last year, this report estimated that, by 2030, the workforce would need to be increased by 20,000 workers and open 25,000 new places to provide coverage for an increasingly fragile and dependent aging population; which represents a significant increase in the number of places that the employers' association sees as necessary to meet medium-term demand. To strengthen this residential system, ACRA is once again raising the same obstacles that they have been discussing for years with the various Social Rights Councillors.

On the one hand, the employers' association proposes increase funding for public spaces, which represent 74% of the total—that is, the beneficiary does not pay—to balance the growth in expenses and accumulated inflation. And on the other hand, they highlight the difficulties that nursing homes have in finding professionals, due to the poor working and salary conditions in the sector, well below what the healthcare network offers.

Following the COVID crisis, which questioned the residential model and raised the need to invest in one that strengthens home care, the president of ACRA, Cinta Pascual, stated that the sector is experiencing "one of its most difficult times" and called for a single agreement to bring it together. In this sense, she called for "a national pact" to position care for dependency as a priority, because the limited coverage of services "is due to the lack of specialized professionals and scarce funding from regional governments." Thus, he insisted that regularizing the status of people already in Catalonia without a work permit could be a solution to alleviate the staff shortage.

Doubling the investment

Along these lines of improving the sector, she also pointed out that it is essential to double investment in care for the dependent, since Spain currently only allocates 0.9% of its GDP, below the European average of 1.79%. The association also proposes streamlining the recognition of foreign qualifications. "The risk of the welfare state collapsing is real," the report warns.

Faced with the needs of an aging population, one of the options proposed by the entity is to extend the stay at home as much as possible. The report indicates that the home care offer in Catalonia serves 67,316 people, with a coverage rate of 4.3% for those over 65 years of age in 2023. This is a percentage lower than the European standard, which stands at 10.1%.

In the presentation of the report to the press this Wednesday, the president of ACRA considered thathome care is a good option, but warned that the "concern" is about social security coverage at home. In Catalonia, the average number of home care hours is about four per week, while in regions like Andalusia, it rises to over 10. Thus, the employers' association believes these hours should be extended, and "that also means more funding," it stressed.